Natural Gas

Roundtable with Con Ed VP Chris Raup, National Grid SVP Mike Calviou, Washington Gas VP Jessica Rogers, Old Dominion Electric Co-op VP Bill Pezalla.

As the global energy landscape pivots toward decarbonization, the role of natural gas has become the subject of intense debate. Given the continued uncertainty surrounding the future of natural gas, how should regulators proceed? This panel, Natural Gas: Risk, Uncertainty, and the Road Ahead, examined ways regulators can navigate the challenges presented by the unsettled role of natural gas as a tool for decarbonization.

“The biggest focus of my work is transitioning gas utilities to the next 100 years of their relationships with customers and the electric sector. I’m here to participate in the discussion about the evolution toward integrated electric and gas network planning and the future of gas.”

At the 2024 NARUC Annual Meeting and Education Conference, the General Session "Natural Gas: Energy Demand and Emission Challenges Leading Up to 2030 and Beyond" featured CEOs from the natural gas production, transmission, and distribution sectors. They examined challenges and their plans for overcoming them through working with the regulatory body to continue lowering emissions, while maintaining production levels, safety, reliability, and affordability.

“Solutions leveraging gas capacity, battery storage, geothermal generation, and fuel cells are creating a bridge to long-term electricity grid solutions. This may be the start of a trend where modular demand needs are matched to distributed generation.”

Most critically, regulators should remember that thoughtful, informed purchasing practices by utilities that know their customers and systems best, go a long way toward ensuring energy remains affordable.

Regional transmission organizations ISO-NE, MISO, PJM, and SPP (Joint RTOs) recently issued a position paper, Strategies for Enhanced Gas-Electric Coordination: A Blueprint for National Progress. It aims to identify issues for state and federal policymakers, which if appropriately resolved, can enhance the reliability of gas-electric coordination. To find out more on this important issue, PUF brought together experts from the Joint RTOs. Listen in on the discussion with ISO-NE VP of Operations and Market Administration Pete Brandien, MISO Executive Director of Market Operations JT Smith, SPP COO Lanny Nickell, and PJM VP of Federal Government Policy Craig Glazer.

“I’m pulling every lever we have to make sure we meet the reliability needs and coordinate the gas and electric side. What’s clear to me is we need somebody, it doesn’t have to be me, FERC, or NERC. We need somebody to step into that gap and make sure they’re focused on the job of protecting our gas reliability.”

“The Biden administration announced a pause on LNG export facilities. What will that mean? The U.S. is the number one producer and became the number one exporter of natural gas in the second half of 2022, following the Russian invasion, when Europe decided to cut access to Russia’s pipelines.”

“The challenge is the U.S. IRA had the effect of people looking at the capital that was going to go to those projects, potentially going to the U.S. To level that playing field, we made a formal proposal to Finance Canada for an investment tax credit that would support production of renewable natural gas.”